Dei decc Deitatem. Nam par ticula ὡς only begotten Son of God. We, faith Iohn, Vidimus beheld his glory As of the only begotten gloriam Son of God. The word [4] is not affimi- cjus ut unigeniti à lative, but declarative, and demonftrative Patre, id in that place, for it, doth declare to us that eft qualis the glory of Chrift is agreeable to his di- unigenitu vine nature, he being the only naturall Son bat ad de of God, because he is the only begotten monftranSon of God; juft as if when we fee a King dam fuam ficting in his Royall robes on his Throne, with a Crowne on his head and a Scepter in his hand, we should fay now we fee him non fimilias a King, that is, now he is like himfelfe. tudinis,fed his ftate is agreeable to his Majefty; even caufæ nota fo was the glory of Chrift which the Apo-fuseeft, rei ftles beheld agreeable to the majesty of the only begotten Son of God, John 1. 14. primens. and therfore the word[As]was not infert- Vide D, edtanquam terminus diminuens to diminish Alting. Explicat. the glory of the only begoten Son of God; Cateche.! for the word [As] is left out in the 18. par.2, qu. verse of this very chapter, The only begot 33.p.176. ten Son which is in the bosome of the Fa ther, lohn 1 v. 18. The Scripture doth abound with feveral expreffions to the fame purpose. But we are specially to obferve that the only begotten Son of God is propoun ded to us as the object of faving Faith, and therefore this point ought to be diligently studied and confidered by us. For fo God Loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beleeves in him should veri tatem ex Object. Sol. αληθώς εόν, ότι μό not perift but have everlasting life, John 3. 16. The Socinians obferving how much it concernes us to ftand ftedfaft, and not yeeld one whit of ground in this point, have tryed their wit to deceive and feduce us, and therefore they object. Ifaac is called the only Son of Abraham, Gen. 22.2. 12. To this we answer without any great findy, That Ifaac was the only Son which Abraham had by Sarah: he was the onely begotten Son of the Promife; though Ifmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, the bond-woman, in an unworthy and difhonourable way; and therefore this example will not ferve the turn, we reject it, for its vos, nuo- impertinency and diffimilitude, Chrift is ve, u the only begotten Son of God, he is Abvas, uó folutely and Simply confidered his only bevov. Greg. Naz. Orat gotten Son, and not only in fome respect as 23 in lau. Ifaac was the only fon of Abraham. Chrift de Heronis (as Gregory Nazianzen faid) is truly the verè filiú, Son of God, he alone is the Son, and the only quod & fcSon of the Father, and his fon in an only or lus (fit filius), & fo- fingular way, and he is the fon only, he is Jus (Patris not the Father alfo, or the holy Ghost. Jefus filius) Chrift is the proper Naturall true fon of fir gulari God, begotten by the Father without a us, & folt mother in the unity of the Godhead, from Filius, non all eternity, equall to the Father, one and filius fimul the fame God with the Father, as the Scri. & Pater. pture fets it forth; and therefore we conclude that he is fimply and abfolutely the modo fili Jefus only begotten Son of God, a more excellent fon then all the other fons of God,not only more excellent in degree, for gradus non mutat fpeciem; but a fuper-excellent fon, who doth differ from all, his other fons, plufquam genere aut fpecie, because he is one God with the Father. Chrift is truly the Son of God, because he is the true God, 1 Iohn 5. 20. begotten of the Father, Heb, 1. 5. begotten without a mother, Hebr. 7.3. begotten from the dayes of eternity, Micah. 5. 2. a fon equal to his Father, who begot him, Iohn 5. 18. Phil. 2. 6. The Son of God, Matth. 16.16. the first begotten, and the only begotten Son of God, the naturall and proper Son of God; for he is as the Father is, God by nature, Gal. 4. 8. and therefore naturally, neceffarily,eternally begotten of the Father in the unity of the Godhead; and therefore there is more then a graduall, nay more then a specificall or genericall difference between this and all other fonnes of God; we fee by all these various expreffions,and by thofe divine and glorious Attributes which are afcribed to Chrift in Scripture, that God hath wonderfully declared his love to us in fending his only begotten to redeeme us according to that of the Apostle, 1 John 4.9. In this was manifeft the love of God towards us, because that God fent his only begotten Son into the World world that we might live through him. When our Saviour called God his Father, the lewes did very well understand that he meant it in a proper and peculiar sense, and therefore told him that he did make himself equall with God, Iohn 5.17. 18.and that being but a man he made himself God, John 10. 33.And though the Jewes accused him of blafphemy, and endeavoured to ftone him as they pretended for his blafphemy, yet our Saviour doth not excufe his fpeech, or fay he meant it in a Metaphoricall fenfe, but doth defend it by many arguments both in the fifth and in the tenth chapters of Saint John,though he did thereby endanger his life;he faith he is equall to the Father, nay one with the Fa ther, Iohn 5. 18. John 10. 30. and when the High Prieft asked him whether he was the Son of the bleffed, Mark 14.61, our Saviour anfwers; I am there's a pun&tuall and pofitive affirmation of it, v. 62, 63. and you may cafily know in what fenfe the High Prieft meant it, by his renting of his clothes, and condemning our Saviour to death for blafphemy, v. 64. And yet our Saviour did not endeavour to allay their heat and rage with any retractation; he would not say that he fpake Metaphoricalfy, for he spake properly, he meant that he was the proper and naturall Son of God, who had the fame nature and power with the the Father, and therefore was able to do, and actually did the fame works with his Father. And the lewes did understand him fo, and therefore urged the Law against him, and condemned him to death for blafphemy, John 19.7. The fews answered him, we have a Law, and by our Law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. Mark the reason, because he made himself the Son of God; If our Saviour had not meant that he was the proper and naturall Son of God, a Son equall to the Father, & one God with the Father, the Iews would not have accufed him of blafphemy. hoc Pfal funt: fed fecundum Morcover the lewes do generally hold Magiftri that those words of the second Pfalme, noftri This day have I begotten thee, are meant of quicquid the Meffiah, as Rabbi Salomon doth ac-mo canitur knowledge in his commentary upon the de rege place. Whatsoever faith he is fung in this Meffia inPfalme, our Masters have interpreted of terpretati King Meffiah; but (faith he) and he whif pers it as a fecret) in regard of the found verborum of the words, and for the refutation of fonum, & Hereticks (for fo the Iew calls us Chrifti- ob refutas ans) we think fit to expound it of David tionem behimself. Here's a lew would faine conceal convenit, a confeffed truth from Christians, and there ut eum inare fome others it seems that would con- terpreteceal this malitious concealment, for thefe mur de ip. fo Davide, Heb. bib.mag. cum com.Rab. edit. a Bombergio Venetiis-Rabbi Salomon.com, in Pfalmum fecundum. words reticorum |